Yves Saint Laurent and Photography explores the powerful relationship Yves Saint Laurent forged between fashion and photography over four decades, revealing how photography functioned not only as a tool for promotion but also as a creative force that helped define a legacy. Organized in collaboration with the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris and the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent, it brings together more than 300 iconic photographs and archival objects.
Featuring work by celebrated artists such as Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin, Robert Doisneau, Horst P. Horst, William Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, Duane Michals, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, David Seidner, Andy Warhol, and others, the exhibition pairs these photographs with contact sheets, campaign materials, magazines, and personal images. Together, they reveal how Yves Saint Laurent established a blueprint for the way the fashion world is visualized and understood today.
Curated by Simon Baker, Guest Curator and photography historian; Nastasia Alberti, Deputy Head of Collections and Head Archivist; and Clémentine Cuinet, Head of Photographic Collections, both of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris.
About Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent (b. 1936, Oran, Algeria) began his career in Paris in 1955 as an assistant to renowned couturier Christian Dior. Following Dior’s sudden death in 1957, Yves Saint Laurent was appointed artistic director of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris and his designs quickly gained critical acclaim. Dismissed from Dior in 1960 after military service and a subsequent hospitalization for depression, he founded his own couture house in partnership with Pierre Bergé, whom he had met in 1958. The first collection was presented in 1962 and the house became known for reinterpreting traditionally masculine garments like pantsuits and trench coats into bold, feminine looks that redefined the wardrobe of the modern woman.
In 1966, he launched SAINT LAURENT rive gauche, a ready-to-wear line with stores opened internationally. Influenced by different cultures, Yves Saint Laurent’s designs paid tribute to artists including Mondrian, Picasso and Van Gogh and drew inspiration from faraway places––most notably Marrakech. This prolific output spanned thirty years and was the subject of numerous awards and exhibitions across the globe. Yves Saint Laurent retired and closed the couture house in 2002, at which point the newly-formed Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent assumed responsibility for advancing and safeguarding his work. Yves Saint Laurent died at his Paris home on June 1, 2008, at the age of seventy-one.
In 2017, the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent was re-envisioned with the opening of two museums in Paris and Marrakech. These institutions preserve and celebrate one of the twentieth century’s most defining creative legacies.
About Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris
The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, chaired by Madison Cox, is the first museum dedicated to one of the greatest couturiers of the twentieth century to open in the capital of fashion. It opened its doors on October 3, 2017, fifteen years after the closing of the haute couture house and obtained the designation ‘Musée de France.’ It occupies the historic hôtel particulier at 5 Avenue Marceau where for nearly thirty years, from 1974 to 2002, Yves Saint Laurent’s creative genius held sway. The museum's vast collection includes 12,000 garments, including 8,300 haute couture pieces more than 100,000 graphic artworks, including 55,000 fashion sketches by the couturier and 194,000 photographs comprising of diapositives, negatives and vintage and modern prints, as well as an archive of more than 4,000 magazines and 60,000 documents, including correspondence, audiovisual materials and personal objects, completing the collection. This ensemble is the result of the pioneering and systematic archival work initiated by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris is temporarily closed for renovations. It is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2027.
Header image: Ensemble worn by Edia Vairelli, Haute Couture Spring/Summer 1982 collection, 5 Avenue Marceau, Paris, January 1982. Polaroid by fashion house staff © All rights reserved © Yves Saint Laurent; Tailored suit worn by Anna Karin, Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 1991 collection, 5 Avenue Marceau, Paris, July 1991. Polaroid by fashion house staff © All rights reserved © Yves Saint Laurent
Harry Meerson, Yves Saint Laurent, 1966 © Harry Meerson
James Moore, Models from the Spring/Summer 1966 haute couture collection. Published in Harper's Bazaar, March 1966 © James Moore © Yves Saint Laurent
Dominique Issermann, Evening dress from the Fall/Winter 1984 haute couture collection. Published in Vogue, November 1984 © Dominique Issermann © Yves Saint Laurent
Irving Penn, Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, 1957 © The Irving Penn Foundation
Special Thanks
Exhibition organized in collaboration with the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris and the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent. This exhibition was originated by the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris and co-produced with the Rencontres d’Arles in 2025.
This exhibition is made possible by the Exhibition Leadership Council, with generous contributions from Michael Clinton, Caryl Englander, Renée Harbers Liddell, Almudena Legorreta, Jessica Nagle, Ken Nicholson, Jeffrey and Marjorie Rosen and Stefano Tonchi and by ICP Exhibitions Committee members: Luana Alesio, Deborah Brown, Marnie Gelfman, Almudena Legorreta, Vasant Nayak, Elizabeth Rea, Benita Sakin and Helena Sokoloff.
Exhibitions at ICP are supported, in part, by ICP Board of Trustees, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
